Plans to fold Cafcass into Family Justice Service "do not go far enough": MPs

Proposals to fold Cafcass into the new Family Justice Service do not go far enough, MPs have said.

In a report the Commons Justice Committee said the move should be the first step in a series of reforms “designed to transform the body into a less process-driven, more child focused and integral part of family justice”.

The MPs noted that Cafcass had made some recent improvements, but said they remained unconvinced that the organisation was robust enough to deal with future challenges.

The committee also:

• Broadly welcomed the approach of the Family Justice Panel in its Interim Report, proposing the creation of a Family Justice Service. However, the MPs were concerned about the lack of data to cost the proposals
• Rejected the recommendation in the Family Justice Panel’s interim report that a statement be introduced into legislation to “reinforce” the importance of a child having a meaningful relationship with both parents. The MPs said this could create confusion and give the mistaken impression the law had changed, by suggesting that the principle that the best interests of the child should prevail had been qualified. “In our view it is obvious to the court that a child deserves a loving, caring relationship with both his or her mother and father”
• Called on the government to scrap provisions in the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010 to allow media access to family courts. This followed “universal condemnation” of the plans
• Urged ministers to reformulate proposals to increase transparency in family courts “putting the views of children centre stage”
• Warned the courts that they need to prepare for a rise in litigants in person as a result of the government’s legal aid reforms. “We are not convinced the Ministry of Justice has fully appreciated the impact on court resources of many more unrepresented parties, but we welcome the Department's undertaking to monitor the outcome of the reforms”
• Suggested that judges should reduce the costs and delays in case management associated with expert reports. Judges should be encouraged to, where possible, insist on joint reports and require clear explanations of why additional assessments are needed, ensuring the parties’ solicitors work together to reduce the number of questions for the expert.

Sir Alan Beith MP, chair of the Justice Select Committee, said: "Greater transparency in the administration of family justice is much needed, but it has to be balanced against the equally important requirement of protecting the interests of children.

"Ministers must go back to the drawing board when it comes to granting media access to family courts and properly consider the views of children who may be affected."

Sir Alan also said that many family disputes could be better dealt with by mediation than in a court. But he added that there would still be cases which go to court and there would be significantly more litigants in person following changes to legal aid.

“Courts are going to have to make adjustments to cope with more people representing themselves in what are often emotionally charged cases."

Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas pointed out that in the last year the organisation had worked on cases involving 147,000 vulnerable children – “more than ever before”.

He said: “Ensuring that each of these children, rather than just some, receives a service has been our unwavering focus and has resulted in, as the committee recognised, ‘a substantial reduction in unallocated cases, at a time when the number of public law cases continue to rise’”

Douglas added that care application figures for the first three months of 2011-12 were 9.1% higher than last yearm with March 2011 the highest on record at 891 applications.

“Despite this, unallocated care cases now stand at two, whilst Children’s Guardians are working on 12,466 care cases. Over the course of 2010-11 duty allocated cases fell by 77% to 223 by March 2011 and we are working to reduce them further – this is a massive improvement in performance in the face of continuing demand,” he said.

The Cafcass chief executive said all agencies operating in the family justice system were under pressure, with HMCS figures showing that “in less than three years the number of children in care and supervision cases before the family courts have increased from around 12,000 at the start of 2009 to more than 20,000 in March 2011”.

“Like all frontline services we have had to prioritise cases and tailor our service according to the needs of each individual child’s case and in line with our resources,” he said.

Philip Hoult